Pulling Strings
by Bookaholics
Summary: Aphrodite had a special place. A place only Hermes and herself knew about. A place where Aphrodite could mess around in the romance of special people's lives.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any other characters from the book. I only own my imagination and an unhealthy obsession with this series, also my made up characters like Vanessa and Isaac and all the others.

**Chapter 1**

Aphrodite sat on her throne on Mount Olympus, filing her nails and humming her favorite love songs like she hadn't a care in the world. Then her left front pocket began to buzz. Aphrodite jumped slightly and glanced around to see if any of the other gods had seen her.

Seeing no one, she reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like an ordinary pocket-sized notebook. But in fact it was an enchanted notebook so it showed Aphrodite certain mortal, immortal, and half-blood relationships she might want to pry into.

Aphrodite whispered the special word that opened the small book and looked inside. What she saw made her spark with interest. Anyone watching would see her perfectly trimmed eyebrow raise a bit and her lean in closer to the book. Aphrodite smiled to herself, and decided to interfere with this new relationship.

She read the history of each person, and when she got to the parents of the girl, she froze and looked quickly from her left to her right. What she had just seen might be the biggest scandal in this century. Or maybe millenia. Or even the whole history of the Greek gods. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any other characters from the book. I only own my imagination and an unhealthy obsession with this series, also my made up characters like Vanessa and Isaac and all the others.

**Chapter 2**

Vanessa Smith hitched her bookbag higher up on her shoulder and continued to walk down the hall to her Greek History class four doors away to the right. She was an eighth grader in middle school and she was 14 years old. Her fifteenth birthday was in one month exactly, and she couldn't be happier. Also, given the fact that there was only two more days of school left, her chest swelled with the feeling of freedom brushing her outstretched fingertips. When Vanessa was born, her parents had wrapped her in a green blanket and laid her on the doorstep of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, her now adopted parents.

As she stepped up to the door, she took a deep breath, her eyes closed, she exhaled slowly. Fred McCarty was in this class, and Vanessa was certain that this was her soulmate. She pushed a lock of long black hair behind her ear and opened the door.

A few people glanced up at her from their conversations, but no one smiled at her or took notice. Until she looked to her seat in the back and saw someone, a boy, with short blond hair and a kind smile that seemed to be sewed onto his face, sitting in the seat just to the left of her own seat. Vanessa lowered her eyes as she got closer, but sneeked a peak at him again and noticed that he had piercing blue eyes that seemed to analyze evey detail in the room, looking especially long at her. Vanessa tried to fight the blush creeping up the back of her neck, and succeeded in only having it reach the bottom of her jaw. As she neared her seat, Vanessa felt a small tap on her right shoulder. She turned around and saw Rachel Carter, the pretty snob who every boy wants to date, and was known for trying to embarrass Vanessa any time she could. Vanessa narrowed her gray eyes at Rachel, whose brown eyes showed the tiniest bit of fear and worry. This is gonna be fun, she thought with a bitter grin to herself.

"So Vanessa," Rachel began. "Do you ever get mad at the fact that your parents gave you up, what was it, oh, right, 14 years ago?" Rachel smirked openly at Vanessa, with the merest hint of satisfaction and triumph in her eyes. By now everyone, including the new boy, was staring at the both of them, looking back and forth between the two, probably wondering who would get punched first. If I had anything to do with it, Rachel would be knocked flat out on the ground, my fist raised above her head, Vanessa thought angrily.

"Really Rachel?" Vanessa said, shaking her head slowly from side to side. "After all these years of trying to embarrass me, that's the best you can come up with? Wow, I thought better of you. Oh, and to answer your question, I don't really care about my real parents anymore. Who cares if they left me, I have a home and family to go to everyday, I'm just fine where I am. And don't you forget it." Vanessa smiled sweetly at Rachel, and turned around and plunked into her seat. She glanced up.

Everyone was staring at her, no one had ever stood up to Rachel like that before. Rachel's mouth was hanging open, and the new boy was looking at Vanessa strangely, like he recognized her from somewhere. Vanessa waved at the class, and looked down at her history book, then up at the clock. 9:05, five minutes until class starts, with no Mr. Walter to be seen.

Vanessa turned to look at the boy sitting next to her. "Hi," she started. "I'm Vanessa Smith. What's your name?" She asked, sticking out her hand. The boy took it.

"I'm Isaac James," he said, shaking Vanessa's hand with a warm smile on his face.

"I don't want to seem rude but, why did you come here so close to the end of the school year?" Vanessa asked, pulling her hand away slowly.

"Oh, well, I move alot and my mom wanted me to at least see the students before the beginning of school. I honestly don't care what I do, as long as it makes my mom happy." Isaac replied with a shrug.

"Well, it's still good to meet you." Vanessa began with a smile. "Let's just hope you don't move again this summer and did this for nothing." Isaac grinned, and as the clock truck 9:10, Mr. Walker strode into the room.

"Sorry I'm late, Mrs. Reed needed help with the coffee machine. Stupid woman, couldn't screw a lid back on a bottle to save her life." Mr. Walker had unsuccessfully tried to murmer the last part as he shook his head. He looked up as he noticed all the students in the front row trying to hold in their laughs. Mr. Walker smiled nervously and ran a hand through his graying hair. Mr. Walker was 43, and has been teaching for 23 years. His goal in life is to teach for at least 30 years.

"Alright class, since there is only two days left of school, we will be watching a movie," Mr. Walter announced, walking to his desk and plopping down into his seat. The class cheered, and Vanessa pulled out a copy of her textbook they used in this class. Vanessa was fascinated by the Greeks, especially the architecture, and didn't want to watch a movie when she could be reading. Isaac leaned across the empty space separating them, peering down at the book. Vanessa looked up.

"What are you doing?" She asked in a small whisper. Isaac looked up.

"I'm quite a nerd about Greek history and mythology," he whispered back quietly. "You could say I've been raised with Greek in my blood." At this he chuckled quietly, his shoulders shaking the tiniest way. Vanessa smiled.

"My parents swear that I must be a decendant of one of the gods, given the time I spend studying about them and memorizing everything I can about them." Vanessa confessed, and she saw Isaac look at her funny again. He shrugged and turned to the screen at the front of the room, glancing back every now and then to look at the now engrossed in reading Vanessa Smith.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any other characters from the book. I only own my imagination and an unhealthy obsession with this series, also my made up characters like Vanessa and Isaac and all the others.

**Chapter 3**

Aphrodite had a secret place. A secret place only Hermes and herself knew about, only because Hermes delivered certain things to this place. But Hermes had never stepped foot into this place. Otherwise, Aphrodite would have had to kill him.

Aphrodite looked around, searching for signs of people, or gods, or demigods, walking around. She took a deep breath, and concentrated. A door appeared in front of her. It was charmed so it blended in perfectly with the surrounding area when she didn't need it. But when she did, all she had to do was think about it, and the door would appear, bright and pink. Aphrodite smiled and pushed open the door.

The room was filled with strings. Hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of strings. 90% of the strings were in pairs, and they all connected at some point to one another. Aphrodite glanced around, seeing every relationship and almost-relationship and non-relationship layed out and organized before her sparkling eyes. The gods' strings were thicker, and had more vibrant colors than the others. The half-bloods had slightly more vibrant colors than the regular mortals, and were usually short, as the strings showed their life span, too. Aphrodite sighed and smiled sadly at the memories of all the lives she had messed with. She snapped out of memory lane when she remembered why she was here. Aphrodite said a name, and a set of strings lit up brightly.

"Ah, there you are!" She said cheerfully, walking over to stand next to the glowing strings. The string representing the father glowed a sea green color, while the mother's was an almost silvery gray. She followed the long strings down, losing count of the many other strings sprouting from them. But she was most interested in the latest one at the very bottom, connected to the two mother and father strings. However, she did not notice the latest string sprouting from only the father's string. Aphrodite studied the color of the string connected to the two. It was a gray-green shade. Aphrodite had only one word for it. Beautiful.

She said another name, and one long, one short, and to her great surprise, another long one sprouting from the two. The string representing the father sparkled a shining gold, and the mother's was a beautiful turquoise. The father's string had many other - short - strings sprouting from it. She followed the strings down to the end, where they met, creating another string, which was the surprisingly long one. The color was a mix of sparkling blue and gold, Aphrodite's second and third favorite colors, her first was of course pink. But she was getting off track.

She smiled, and watched as the gray-green string and the blue and gold string moved barely half a millimeter closer.

**Hey guys, I just want to say thanks for reading my story! You guys are awesome! Oh, and just to let you know, when you review, I always jump up and do my happy dance! So please review! **


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any other characters from the book. I only own my imagination and an unhealthy obsession with this series, also my made up characters like Vanessa and Isaac and all the others.

**Chapter 4**

Isaac James watched as Vanessa turned the page of her textbook. Something she had said before had disturbed him. _My parents swear that I must be a decendant of one of the gods_. That had made his brain, made for art, not riddles, churn with thoughts. He had seen those gray eyes before, on one of his good friends, Annabeth Chase's, face.

As he pretended to watch the movie, _Finding Nemo_, he was thinking about the short time until summer. When his mom would take him to his favorite place in the world, summer camp. Something fluttered in front of him. It was a scrap of paper. Isaac unfolded the slip and read it.

_Hey, Isaac. It's Vanessa. I'm so bored! :( _

Isaac laughed silently at how impatient Vanessa seemed. He looked around for his pencil, and, seeing near the end of the desk, grabbed it and began writing.

_**Haha! Why are you so bored? I thought you were reading some Greek history? ;)**_

_Well, I was, but then I realized I already knew everything! :(_

_**I'm terribly sorry, but I can't help that you already know everything. That's all your fault. ;)**_

Vanessa looked up from the note and met Isaac's eyes with a hard glare. Isaac shrugged and turned around, his shoulders shaking slightly.

_Shut it. _

_**You know, I can't really 'shut it', we're writing on paper, not actually speaking.**_

Isaac looked back at Vanessa, watching her read the note, rolling those familiar gray eyes. She looked up at him, and Isaac gave her a goofy grin. She smiled at him, and bent down to write.

_Smart alec. And by the way, if you start making that face to often, your face will stuck that way. And then you won't get married to anyone. ;)_

_**I have been making that face everyday since I was born. I think it would have stuck since then. So HA!**_

_~snorts~ Sure you have! Eeep! Spider! By your foot!_

Vanessa had jumped a bit out of her seat, spotting the spider. Fortunately, she had clapped a hand to her mouth before she could scream. She _hated_ spiders. Isaac read the note, and looked over at Vanessa, seeing her hand clapped over her mouth, eyes wide and staring at his feet. He looked down. There was a small black spider, barely the size of his fingernail, sitting by his foot. Isaac smiled at Vanessa reasurringly, and stomped his foot on the small spider. He heard an exhale of breath and looked back. Vanessa was slumped in her seat, face relaxed with relief.

_**Hey, you OK? I can't believe you were scared of such a small spider. **_

_:P I'm fine, just shaken. I think I'm going to watch Nemo now. I've always loved the ocean._

_**K. :)**_

_:)_

Isaac looked at Vanessa, who was engrossed in the movie. He frowned at the note. He found two odd things. No, make that three. First, Vanessa had those so familiar gray eyes. Second, she _hated _spiders, like Annabeth. And third, she loved the ocean. Annabeth's brothers and sisters weren't big fans of oceans, but Annabeth didn't really care.

Pretty soon, Isaac made the decision to contact his summer camp activities director, and ask if Vanessa could come and attend camp with him. Because he was piecing two and two together, and the result of the puzzle, well, let's say he stuck close to Vanessa for the next two days of school left.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any other characters from the book. I only own my imagination and an unhealthy obsession with this series, also my made up characters like Vanessa and Isaac and all the others.

**Chapter 5**

Vanessa had just dropped off her bookbag and sat down on her bed when the phone rang. Vanessa was the only one in the house, since her parents were still working, so she got up and walked downstairs to the kitchen. She picked up the phone.

"Hello?" She asked, studying her nails.

"Hey, is this Vanessa?" A boy's familiar voice replied.

"Yeah, is this Isaac?" Vanessa sat down at the dining table.

"You guessed it! Anyways, I was wondering, do you want to come to this summer camp with me? It's free, and lasts all summer. It's amazing, I've been going for two years." Vanessa could hear the hopeful tone in his voice, and she panicked.

"Where is it? And what's it's name?" She asked, grabbing a pen and notepad.

"Well the name of the camp is the same as the name of the place Half-Blood Hill."

"Half-Blood Hill? Sounds a little weird for a summer camp."

"Yeah, well, it's really fun. And you get a free necklace with a speacialized bead every year. I hope you can come."

Vanessa was at a loss for words, she liked Isaac as a friend, but he would probably be the only one she knew at this summer camp. So she came to a decision.

"Well, I'll ask my parents if I can go, but, it's all up to them." Vanessa told him, mentally wishing her parents would let her go.

"OK, well, at least ask. Thanks. I, uh, hope you can come. I'll, um, talk to you later. Bye."

The phone clicked. Vanessa pulled the phone away from her ear, and looked at it. Isaac seemed kind of rejected at her last words. She reached up and felt around her eyes. They weren't moist, and she was glad for that. She didn't know why she would cry, she just wanted to check. But there was a tingling inside the pit of her stomach, a feeling.

A door slammed. "Vanessa! I'm home!" A woman's voice called, sounding from the front door. It was her mother. Vanessa's adopted mother, Ellen Smith, was a short and petite woman, with graying black hair and darting hazel eyes. She was married to Mark Smith, an average man, with dark brown hair and chocolate colored eyes. Ellen worked at a local bank, a couple blocks down, along with Mark.

Vanessa quickly rubbed a hand over her face and hung up the phone. She tucked her long black hair behind her ears, and put a small smile on her face.

"Hey, Mom! Where's Dad?" Vanessa called back, opening the kitchen door and walking down the hallway that led to the front door, and the stairs to her bedroom.

"He won't be home for awhile, he had to work an extra shift." Her mother said, as Vanessa walked into the room, resting a slightly wrinkled hand on her broad shoulder.

Vanessa looked down, dejected. "Oh, OK then." She said, turning to grab the stairs' railing. But she paused with one foot on the first step. "Hey Mom," she started, turning to face her adopted mother, who was still standing in front of the door. "I got a call from my friend, Isaac, he wants to know if I can come to a summer camp with him for the whole summer. He said it was free and that it was a whole lot of fun. He's been going for two years."

Ellen wrung her hands, her eyes darting from side to side, left to right, up and down. "Well, what's this Isaac boy's last name?" She decided to ask.

"James, Isaac James." Vanessa replied quickly.

Ellen's eyes had stopped darting, and were now focused closely on Vanessa. "And what is the name of this summer camp?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips. She had dozens of questions for Vanessa, but decided to keep them short and simple.

"Half-Blood Hill."

Ellen's face relaxed immediately. "Of course you can go, sweetheart. But I won't be able to drop you off. I'm working around the clock for the summer. Why don't you ask if your friend Isaac's mom or dad could take you. I can help you pack." She said, hitching her bulky black purse higher up on her shoulder.

Vanessa could almost jump with joy.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I've actually been pretty busy this summer. And I probably won't update for another period of time because I will be on vacation and I don't know when I will be able to update again. :( And I also want to apologize if this chapter is a little scattered. I wrote it in a rush. Anyways, I'd thank everyone who reviewed! Reviews remind me I have a story to write, so review please! :)**


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